Is there a portrayal of anyone from Old Hollywood that is more fun than Landau's poignant portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood? Landau got what Lugosi never did, a chance to actually be a noted actor after he was already stereotyped by a career in cheese.

“Sentimentality is when it doesn't come off—when it does, you get a true expression of life's sorrows.” —Alain-Fournier

Strangely enough, they pulled off his face and it was Peter Graves under there.Robert Vaughn, Roger Moore, Adam West, now Martin Landau.... my childhood heroes are falling like dominoes.How many obituaries for this man did you see where they summed up his long career with "Actor Turned Down Chance To Play Mr. Spock?" Then again, all of Leonard Nimoy's obituaries were headlined "Actor Replaced Martin Landau on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE."Landau was a close friend of James Dean, played memorable villains on COLUMBO, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, THE WILD WILD WEST and best of all, THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS ON GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, had extensive experience in the early days of television and piloted the moon out of Earth's orbit and through the solar system.Talk about method actors: how many times on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE did we see Rollin Hand ("Man of a Million Faces") study films of the person he was going to imitate and practice their gestures, then crafting the masks he would wear during the impersonation? Lon Chaney would have loved this show.